• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.645-651
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• 2018

The carcinogenicity of chemicals in the environment is a major concern. Recently, numerous studies have attempted to develop methods for predicting carcinogenicity, including rodent and cell-based approaches. However, rodent carcinogenicity tests for evaluating the carcinogenic potential of a chemical to humans are time-consuming and costly. This study focused on the development of an alternative method for predicting carcinogenicity using quantitative PCR (qPCR) and colon cancer stem cells. A toxicogenomic method, mRNA profiling, is useful for predicting carcinogenicity. Using microarray analysis, we optimized 16 predictive gene sets from five carcinogens (azoxymethane, 3,2'-dimethyl-4-aminobiphenyl, N-ethyl-n-nitrosourea, metronidazole, 4-(n-methyl-n-nitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone) used to treat colon cancer stem cell samples. The 16 genes were evaluated by qPCR using 23 positive and negative carcinogens in colon cancer stem cells. Among them, six genes could differentiate between positive and negative carcinogens with a p-value of ${\leq}0.05$. Our qPCR-based prediction system for colon carcinogenesis using colon cancer stem cells is cost- and time-efficient. Thus, this qPCR-based prediction system is an alternative to in vivo carcinogenicity screening assays.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.115-125
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• 2021

Calcium-dependent protein kinases (CDPKs) are known to be involved in regulating plant responses to abiotic stresses such as salinity, cold temperature and dehydration,. Although CDPKs constitute a large multigene family consisting of 31 genes in rice, only a few rice CDPKs' functions have been identified. Therefore, in order to elucidate the functions of OsCPK11 in rice, this study was intended to focus on the expression pattern analysis of OsCPK11 in wild type and ND0001 oscpk11 mutant plants under these abiotic stresses. For the salt, cold and drought stress treatment, seedlings were exposed to 200 mM NaCl, 4℃ and 20% PEG 6,000, respectively. RT-PCR and quantitative real-time PCR were performed to determine the expression patterns of OsCPK11 in wild type and ND0001 mutant plants. RT-PCR results showed that OsCPK11 transcripts in the wild type and heterozygous mutant were detected, but not in the homozygous mutant. Real-time PCR results showed that relative expression of OsCPK11 of wild type plants was increased and reached to the highest level at 24 hr, at 6 hr and at 24 hr under salt, cold and drought stress conditions, respectively. Relative expression of OsCPK11 of ND0001 homozygous plant was significantly reduced compared to that of wild type. These results suggested that oscpk11 homozygous mutant knocks out OsCPK11 and OsCPK11 might be involved in salt, cold and drought stress signaling by regulating its gene expression.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.59-64
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• 2002

Substantial evidences have been accumulated about the hormone-like effects of exogenous substances such as pesticides and industrial chemicals during past years. The effects of these substances on the endocrine system are believed to be either enhancing or reducing of various endocrine action. It is necessary to identify putative causal agents by the batter system and to assess their ability to disrupt the endocrine system. A variety of in vitro and In vivo approaches have been used to determine the androgenic effects of environmental chemicals. To establish the method for assessment of the putative endocrine disruptors with androgenic activity, we carried out the cell proliferation assay by MTS method after treatment with the various concentration of testosterone in LNCaP cells (human prostatic cancer cell line) and also observed the expression of androgen-related genes by quantitative RT-PCR. In the cell proliferation assay, the results showed that the grouth of LNCaP cells increased within level of at least 10pM testosterone. We measured by quantitative RT-PCR method on the effects of testosterone on mRNA expression of androgen receptor (AR), prostate-specific antigen (PSA), bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) and BMP receptor (BMPR) In LNCaP cells. The results demonstrated that mRNA expression of PSA and BMPR-IB was observed differently within level of at least 0.01 pM testosterone compared with non-treated control. These observations suggest that the detection of PSA and BMPR-IB mRNA by the quantitative RT-PCR in LNCaP cells is very sensitive method to identify the endocrine disruptors to have the androgenic effects.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.21-24
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• 2014

Clubroot caused by the obligate biotrophic protist Plasmodiophora brassicae Woronin is one of the most damaging diseases of Brassicaceae family. In this study, we developed species-specific primer sets for rapid and accurate detection of P. brassicae. The primer sets developed amplified a specific fragment only from P. brassicae DNA while they did not amplify a band from 10 other soilborne pathogens or from Kimchi cabbage. In sensitivity test, the species-specific primer set ITS1-1/ITS1-2 could work for approximately 10 spores/ml of genomic DNA showing more sensitivity and accuracy than previous methods. With quantitative real-time PCR test, the primer set detected less spores of P. brassicae than before, confirming that the species-specific primer set could be useful for rapid and accurate detection of P. brassicae.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.940-945
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• 2001

Symbiobacterium toebii has been previously reported as a novel commensal thermophile exhibiting a commensal interaction with thermophilic Geobacillus sp. SK-1. We investigated the distribution of this commensal thermophile in various soils using molecular methods, such as quantitative PCR and terminal restriction fragment polymorphism analysis. Based on a nested competitive quantitative PCR the 16S rDNA of the commensal thermophile was only detected in compost soils at about $1.0{\times}10^4$ cpoies per gram of soil, corresponding to $0.25{\times}10^4$ cells per gram of soil. However, in an enrichment experiment at $60^{\circ}C$, about $1.0{\times}10^8$ copies of 16S rDNA molecules were detected per ml of enriched culture broth for all the soils, and more than 0.1 mM indole accumulated as the product of commensal bacterial growth. When incubated at $30^{\circ}C$, neither the 16S rDNA of the commensal bacterium nor any indole accumulation was detected. Accordingly, even though the 16S rDNA of the bacterium was only detected in the compost soils by a nested PCR, the presence of the 16S rDNA molecules of commensal thermophile and accumulation of indole in all the enriched cultures appeared to indicate that the commensal thermophile is widely distributed in various soils.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.827-833
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• 2011

The objective of this study was to develop a fluorogenic real-time PCR-based assay for detecting and quantifying amounts of cow milk in cow/goat milk mixtures or goat milk products. In order to quantify the exact amount of cow milk in cow/goat raw milk mixtures and commercial goat milk products, it was necessary to achieve quantitative extraction of total genomic DNA from the raw milk matrix. Both mammalian-specific PCR and cow-specific PCR were performed. A cow-specific 252 bp band obtained from the raw cow milk and raw goat milk mixtures, commercial goat milk, and two goat milk powders was identified, along with the relationship between the cow milk amount and band intensity of the electrophoresis image. The detection threshold was found to be 0.1%. The expression of cow's 12S rRNA in the cow/goat milk mixtures, commercial goat milk, and two goat milk powders was identified. The expression quantity of the milk 12S rRNA increased with increasing ratios of the cow/goat milk mixtures. Using these calibrated relative expression levels as a standard curve in the cow/goat raw milk mixtures, the contents of cow milk were 1.8% in the commercial goat milk, 9.6% in goat milk powder A, and 11.6% in goat milk powder C. However, cow milk was not detected in goat milk powder B.

• Journal of fish pathology
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.161-168
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• 2021

Quantitative analysis of myxosporean parasites (Enteromyxum leei and Parvicapsula anisocaudata) were performed using real-time PCR on the internal organs (head kidney, body kidney, intestine, spleen, brain, liver, heart, muscle, blood, and eye) of emaciated Paralichthys olivaceus from farm-A. The highest DNA copy number of E. leei was shown in the intestine (1.3 × 10⁸ copies/mg tissue) of emaciatied P. olivaceus and DNA copy number in the other internal organs (1.3 × 10³~4.6 × 10⁵ copies/mg tissue) showed lower than in intestine. From the result of real-time PCR for P. anisocaudata, it was considered mildly infected, due to the low DNA copy numbers of the head kidney (1.3 × 10³ copies/mg tissue) and body kidney (9.1 × 10³ copies/mg tissue). In order to investigate whether myxosporean parasites can be detected in a non-invasive way, quantitative analysis of E. leei and P. anisocaudata from rearing water of three farms were performed by real-time PCR. The DNA copy number of E. leei from rearing water of farm-A and farm-B were 8 × 10⁴ and 5 × 10⁵ copies/L, respectively. However, it was not detected in farm-C. For P. anisocaudata from rearing water, farm-A, farm-B and farm-C showed 0, 2.0 × 10⁶ and 5.1 × 10⁶ copies/L, respectively.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.155-160
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• 2008

Several studies have reported quantitative trait loci (QTL) for meat quality on porcine chromosome 2 (http://www.animalgenome.org/QTLdb/pig.html). For application of the molecular genetic information to the pig industry through marker-assisted selection, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers were analyzed by comparative re-sequencing of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products of 13 candidate genes with DNA from commercial pig breeds such as Berkshire, Yorkshire, Landrace, Duroc and Korean Native pig. A total of 34 SNPs were identified in 15 PCR products producing an average of one SNP in every 253 bp. PCR restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) assays were developed for 11 SNPs and used to investigate allele frequencies in five commercial pig breeds in Korea. Eight of the SNPs appear to be fixed in at least one of the five pig breeds, which indicates that different selection among pig breeds might be applied to these SNPs. Polymorphisms detected in the PTH, CSF2 and FOLR genes were chosen to genotype a Berkshire-Yorkshire pig breed reference family for linkage and association analyses. Using linkage analysis, PTH and CSF2 loci were mapped to pig chromosome 2, while FOLR was mapped to pig chromosome 9. Association analyses between SNPs in the PTH, CSF2 and FOLR suggested that the CSF2 MboII polymorphism was significantly associated with several pork quality traits in the Berkshire and Yorkshire crossed F2 pigs. Our current findings provide useful SNP marker information to fine map QTL regions on pig chromosome 2 and to clarify the relevance of SNP and quantitative traits in commercial pig populations.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.375.1-375.1
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• 2016

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has revolutionized genetics and become one of the most popular techniques in modern biological and medical sciences. It can be used not only as an in vitro DNA amplification method but also used in many bioassay applications. The PCR can be used to exponentially produce a large number of DNA copies from a small quantity of DNA molecules in a few hours. However, as unwanted DNA fragments are also often manufactured, the amplification efficiency of PCR is decreased. To overcome this limitation, several nanomaterials have been employed to increase the specificity of the PCR reaction. Recently, graphene has attracted a great interest for its excellent electron transfer, thermal and biocompatibility. Especially, gold nanoparticle-coated graphene oxide (GO/AuNPs) led to enhance electron and thermal transfer rate and low-charge transfer resistance. Therefore, we report the development of a demonstration for the PCR efficiency using a large-scale production of the GO and combination of gold nanoparticles. Because a thermal conductivity is an important factor for improving the PCR efficiency in different DNA polymerases and different size samples. When PCR use GO/AuNPs, the result of transmission electron microscopy and real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) showed an enhanced PCR efficiency. We have demonstrated that GO/AuNPs would be simply outperformed for enhancing the specificity and efficiency of DNA amplification procedure.

• Preventive Nutrition and Food Science
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.274-279
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• 2012

For the quantitative analysis of genetically modified (GM) maize in processed foods, primer sets and probes based on the 35S promoter (p35S), nopaline synthase terminator (tNOS), p35S-hsp70 intron, and zSSIIb gene encoding starch synthase II for intrinsic control were designed. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products (80~101 bp) were specifically amplified and the primer sets targeting the smaller regions (80 or 81 bp) were more sensitive than those targeting the larger regions (94 or 101 bp). Particularly, the primer set 35F1-R1 for p35S targeting 81 bp of sequence was even more sensitive than that targeting 101 bp of sequence by a 3-log scale. The target DNA fragments were also specifically amplified from all GM labeled food samples except for one item we tested when 35F1-R1 primer set was applied. A reference plasmid pGMmaize (3 kb) including the smaller PCR products for p35S, tNOS, p35S-hsp70 intron, and the zSSIIb gene was constructed for real-time PCR (RT-PCR). The linearity of standard curves was confirmed by using diluents ranging from $2{\times}10^1{\sim}10^5$ copies of pGMmaize and the $R^2$ values ranged from 0.999~1.000. In the RT-PCR, the detection limit using the novel primer/probe sets was 5 pg of genomic DNA from MON810 line indicating that the primer sets targeting the smaller regions (80 or 81 bp) could be used for highly sensitive detection of foreign DNA fragments from GM maize in processed foods.